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Sunday, September 13, 2015

one chinchilla two, three chinchillas four

Most of y'all who know us know that we have a little bit of a chinchilla obsession. Over the last 3 and a half years of marriage we seem to be continually collecting these little creatures.

I quite frequently find my self explaining to every person that I meet, about how on earth I ended up with four chinchillas.

Pope, Cardinal, Bishop and Archie are our current fluffy butts that we have. On occasion we do pick up a few to hold for a local rescue here in Arizona. But four is our limit.

Originally we had one. Pope the chinchilla. He had been my husband's family pet for a number of years. When we got hitched, we decided to pack up poor Pope from New Hampshire and fly him alllll the way out to Idaho to live with us.

After a few months of living with us, I decided that he was lonely. Where he originally had been staying he had people constantly at his cage talking to him. Pope absolutely loves any and all attention.

We then set up a play date with some other local chinchilla owners. One thing led to another and we'll then there was two.

Originally he was just going to stay the night...

Cardinal is what we call our derpy chin. You will frequently find him wide eyed in strange positions through out the cage. Once out he will clime to the absolute highest point he can possibly get to and stare at you until you chase him down.

But, If there is one thing that I could say about Cardinal, it's that he absolutely adores Pope. From day one he has just wanted to snuggle and love up on Pope. The best part about it...Pope hates cuddling. I have sat and watched these two on so many occasions, it's absolutely hilarious.

We have tubes in the cage for them to play and lay on and often we find Cardinal smooshed in with Pope on the same tube. Pope will knack and knack at him, occasionally Cardinal will move but majority of the time Pope will give up and accept it.

Because our first bonding of chinchillas had been so successful we frequently joked about getting another chinchilla for Cardinal to actually be able to snuggle with.

A few days after thanksgiving I made the mistake of walking into a petstore. Bishop the chinchilla was sitting very grumply and lonely in his plastic cage. I immediately knew I wanted him. And after convincing husband that this would be the best Christmas gift we walked out the door with our third chinchilla.

Bishop the chinchilla is a different kind of chinchilla. Chinchillas are animals of prey, scared and frightened little creatures. Bishop is none of these. He is aggressive, angry and has zero fears.

Unfortunately he was and is unable to bond with other chinchillas. He will live by himself for the rest of his life.

Over the year of owning him we have seen his temperment change and grow trusting of us. We hope to see him continually grow to become a better well behaved chinchilla.

Back in 2014 husband was offered an incredible job, so we packed up our house and our Chinchillas and drove down to Arizona. It was quite an adventure to have three chinchillas stuffed in our car on a 14 hour drive.

Shortly after moving to Arizona I met a wonderful woman here, who runs a rescue for chinchillas in the valley. One night she was unable to pick up a rescue chinchilla, she called me to see if we were able to. The chinchilla that we received had been so badly mauled that he had to receive an emergency amputation on his back leg.

At this point in time we added our fourth and final chinchilla to our family.

Archie the chinchilla is our youngest chinchilla of the four, and he is completely heart melting. He is very much a baby and has the sweetest temperament. He loves to be held and he loves to be loved.

Due to his amputation he is unable to bond with Pope and Cardinal. They enjoy picking on him.

Archie has been such a wonderful connection in our family and we are so grateful to have him brought into our lives.